Trekking on twenty years without Gene Roddenberry

Twenty years ago on this day the creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, passed away. Although the world has changed in many ways, his legacy has remained and continues to grow even so long after his passing. With seven major series and ten movies there is no doubt that the Star Trek universe is here to stay.

Roddenberry unwittingly unleashed a phenomenon in which Star Trek enthusiasts became a veritable cult, numbering physicists, aerospace engineers, housewives, senators, children, teachers and intellectuals among its devotees (affectionately known as “Trekkies,” and later, “Trekkers”). The show went outside television to win science fiction’s coveted Hugo Award and then spawned an animated spin-off, as well as a series of feature films.

Although Roddenberry is sorely missed, a whole new generation of talented Star Trek fans have kept the passions burning.

“Space…the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, its five-year mission

….to explore strange new worlds …to seek out new life and new civilizations …to boldly go where no man has gone before.” — Gene Roddenberry (August 10, 1966)